Jimmy Eat World*Clarity

Here comes the flow...

So I was watching one of my 2 favorite shows tonight, 'Without a Trace' (the other being 'Alias'). I had already seen it, but I remembered being moved by it in the past, so I decided to watch it again. Even knowing how everything turned out in the end, I still cried my eyes out. Not just a tear trickling down my cheek, but actual crying. This particular episode was about a boy, tortured and teased by his classmates, who staged his own kidnapping from school and was going to kill himself. I remember watching the events unfold the first time I saw it; I remember in particular my sister Megan and her reaction to it. We both were sitting in the living room, crying, watching the cops search for him. And we were both thinking, "Get there. Get there in time." [Now, I apologize that this much of your time is being taken up with me talking about a TV show...] But... because of who I am, and the way my heart works, I can't take myself out of the story. I see this boy, who's hardly even a teenager yet, and he hates himself. And all his peers hate him and make fun of him... and they don't see him. And it's those people - the ones who are overlooked and passed off... I should love them. I should help them. And I don't.

I mean, think about it in your own life: how many people do you know that are 'hard to love' or 'annoying' or just... hardly there at all? We all see them, but we don't think about them. And we all assume that 'somebody else' loves them. What if nobody does? Or what if only their parents do? What if they feel like nobody in the world cares about them? And instead of maybe being that one person who takes the time to get to know who they are, we get added to the list of people who don't give a rip. Sure, we're "nice" and "polite." But we don't really love them... not in the way they need us to. How many hurting people do we see and think that 'it's not my business' and walk on? Or maybe we don't think we have anything to offer... but they don't really want answers from us. They want a soul. A living, breathing, genuine human being that will come alongside them and love them and listen to them... and just be with them. Gosh... to think: how many people have I walked past who needed me... and I was 'too busy' or 'not comfortable' or just plain blind...

That's a tv show worth watching: one that draws you in line with the heart of Jesus.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on us, because the LORD has anointed us to preach good news to the poor. He has sent us to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who morn..."